XVI a. pirmos pusės žemaičių valdžios elitas: kilmė ir tapatumas

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Privilegijos; Seniūnas; Valdantysis elitas; Valsčiaus tijūnas; Žemaitija (Samogitia); Žemaitija XVI a. pirmoje pusėje; Žemaičių tijūnai; Žemaičių valdžios elitas; District state governor; Eder (seniūnas); Governing elite; Privileges; Samogitia; Samogitia in the first half of the 16th century; Samogitian governing; Samogitian governors.

ENThe paper discusses the question of the origins and identity of the Sa- mogitian administrative districts’ state governors (tijūnai) in the first half of the 16th century (before the judiciary and administrative reform of 1566). Legally, beginning with the 1442 privilege to Samogitia of the Grand Duke Casimir, these officials could only be local landholders. However, the privilege did not discuss the selection procedure for the officials. Thus the composition of the tijūnai corps was almost entirely dependent on the seniūnas of Samogitia who led local administration. From the beginning of the 15th century until 1532 the position of the seniūnas of Samogitia was held by the representatives of Kęsgailą family of non-Samogitian descent. These used to distribute the offices of tijūnai according to their personal interests, rather than the privileges of the Samogitian gentry and the administrative traditions of the seniūnas’ office. From the beginning of the 15th century the Kęsgailas expanded their personal lands in Samogitia. This had considerable influence on their rapprochement with the local noble families. Thus majority of the Samogitian tijūnai in the first third of the 16th century were of Samogitian origin. From the 1540s the office of the seniūnas of Samogitia went to the representatives of Chodkevičius family. Many nobles who had served them, frequently of Ruthenian origin, accompanied them to Samogitia. It did not take long for them to entrench themselves in the offices of the Samogitian tijūnai, pushing aside many local noble families.The distinction between that which is ‘ours’ and that which is ‘alien’ has the greatest impact on the question of identity. In the first half of the 16,h century we can see a certain development in the self-understanding of the Samogitian tijūnai based on that distinction. In the beginning of the 16th century this distinction is most often characterised through ethnic categories (Samogitian-Lithuanian, local-foreign). As the middle of the 16'h century approaches, these were replaced by social categories (local landholder vs. non-local landholder).This shows the rapid formation of the ‘nobles’ nation’. [From the publication]